Why do you knit?

“Anna, why do you knit?” someone asked me recently. Why do I knit indeed. Or crochet, for that matter, since I do both. It’s not exactly productive. It doesn’t offer the most stitch per minute rate or best return on time invested. It’s not modern, efficient or financially prudent. It would make so much more sense to use my time on something necessary while machines in a cheaper economy somewhere on the other side of the globe to churn acrylic yarn into neat, error free lines of uniform stitches.

But that’s exactly it, isn’t it? The modern world is spinning faster and faster. In our busy lives we have busy serious jobs which require us to be analytical, efficient, productive and organised. Life is busy and cruelly practical, juggling work demands, bills, cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, nappies, and endless flow of functional, disposable stuff.

Life is hectic for most of us. The danger is that we lose part of ourselves in being serious grown ups, forget about the joy of translating an idea into something tangible, unique, a little imperfect, hand made. When I was a child I wrote poetry and adventure stories, painted, sculpted, drew, recycled clothes, made crooked tents out of sticks and leaves, which sometimes turned into castles. I always knitted. I have 3 small kids now and when on temporary work leave I also work so finding time for myself it hard and usually just means less sleep. It’s joyful, it lifts my mood, it makes the creative side of my brain unfurl. A luscious, soft merino flowing through my fingers relaxes me and the sight of a project turning from a skein of yarn into something I created brings warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction.

So look at what I have on my needles at the moment, among several other projects, that is. A pair of Show Off Stranded Socks (free pattern on Ravelry) in Merino / Nylon Rose Window sock yarn by Rebel Yarn on Etsy. They are not my usual colour choice but I love them. The variegated yarn and stranded pattern are working well together and the brights are warming up the cold and rainy evenings.

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2 Comments

Great to see your blog up and running. Your reasons for knitting are so much more philosophical than my own! I knit (and crochet and cross-stitch) because I like watching trash TV and at least I feel I’m being productive and not wasting hours of my life if I am creating something at the same time. And, let’s be honest, I’d fall asleep in front of the TV if I wasn’t using my hands!!

Hi, Tara,
I usually knit or crochet in front of TV too but it seems to be the other way round – I’d be knitting anyway so the tv might be on as well. I might even learn something new and amazing, like eye colour of puffer fish (blue, Fish Tank Kings) or energy requirements of space faring civilasation (VERY BIG, Human Universe). It does make crafting even more fun 😀